Picture of Twin Toilets in Sochi Goes Viral

A picture tweeted by a reporter covering the Sochi Games instantly became an online joke

This photo taken on Friday Jan. 17, 2014, shows two toilets at the cross-country skiing and biathlon center for next month's Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Although two toilets and only one stall like this are not common in Russia, social media users have responded by posting other pictures of toilets standing side by side. One said this was standard at Russian soccer stadiums. (AP Photo/Steve Rosenberg, BBC)

It's a tale of two toilets.

When BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg went to use the bathroom at the cross-country skiing and biathlon center for next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, he found two toilets but only one stall.

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His tweeted picture instantly became a national joke.

Although toilets like that are not common in Russia, social media users posted photos of other toilets side by side, including some said to be in a courthouse and a cafe.

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The editor of the state R-Sport news agency said such communal toilets are standard at Russian soccer stadiums.

"Why are the BBC folks scaring us?" Vasily Konov wrote in this personal Twitter account. "This is what the gents look like at football stadiums in Russia." He posted a photo showing two urinals and three toilets in a large room.

Russians jested that the toilets in Sochi were designed for a "tandem," the name used to describe the duo of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. One popular blogger altered Rosenberg's photo to put in a framed portrait of the two leaders above the toilets.

In a nod to the tight security measures imposed in Sochi for the Olympics, another joke has it that the second toilet was for a security officer.